Ghost Club
by Luke Danger
Summary: After being caught using his powers during school hours by Lancer, Danny ends up with an alternative punishment involving a new club in Casper High, which Valerie is in. But, after his warnings on the dangers of ghost hunting are ignored and the Lunch Lady attacks, Valerie's identity as a ghost hunter becomes endangered. Rated T to be safe, and a sequel to "A New World Network"
1. Chapter 1

_Pre-Story Author's Notes:_

_This is part of a longer series, and is a sequel to "A New World Network". This one is stand alone enough that you do not need to read the preceding story to enjoy it, but it is part of the same series._

_Other than that, all yours. Enjoy the reading._

**The Future**

**Fenton Works, Amity Park**

Wearing an orange jumpsuit and a headset tucked neatly into his ear, Danny looked over those who were gathered in the lab. He was in his human form still, saving his energy for what was coming as he took stock of the volunteers as they were getting a crash course in the various weapons, a far better course than they ever had before. Valerie was busy instructing in marksmanship, the array of targets Danny had used to practice shooting ghost rays now used to train the students of Casper High and a few adults. So many fellow students, suited up again like the time they raided Youngblood's ship. Except this time, he knew a lot of them would not be coming back, and he suspected a lot of them knew it too, since there was a grim air of preparation in the lab. And... fear.

But the fear, he realized as he continued his informal inspection and assisted here and there with weapons practice, was far more his own than theirs. They were busy organizing an order of battle with what was available. The nerds and geeks had turned out to be surprisingly good long shots and were filling in a support role with support gadgets and gizmos like the Thermos and power drainers, while wielding ecto sniper rifles as a primary weapon. The band members were going for weapons similar to their instruments and some bits of protective anti-ecto plating, used to the weight from their marching uniforms. The jocks had grabbed the heavy weapons and armor while most of the 'shallow' girls had (to his surprise) picked melee weapons with a favoring for more claw-like ones. He wondered how long they would last once the brawl began; though he knew how vicious they could be from Tucker's experiences, few of them had ever been counterattacked during such clawing. Everyone else was grabbing whatever weapon they were best suited for, a mix of ecto rifles, pistols, smaller Fenton Bazookas, grenades, medkits, and an assortment of melee weapons from Fenton Fishers to Jack-o'-Nine Tails. Everyone had at least one ranged weapon, even if it was just a pistol, since they knew they would fight many fliers.

Danny sighed as he walked over to the sealed ghost portal, looking at it longingly and then towards the kids preparing, realizing how many of them would find another route to the Ghost Zone. He knew them, but more than just classmates. Many of them were friends, yet the most experience with a gun almost any of them had was playing _Doomed_.

Valerie walked over to him as the groups switched training weapons, clad in her usual Axion Labs based combat gear but without some of the heavier weapons the lab had provided. "So. It's come to this, huh?"

"I guess." Danny answered as he slowly shook his head. "I never intended this to happen, I just wish I knew where I went wrong, where I let it get this far. Did I put too much into trying to maintain something of a normal life that I ignored the threat?"

"Danny," Valerie cut in, "We both know that you of all people did more than anyone trying to stop this. It's not your fault that we're in this war."

"Yeah, but... just months ago, we were telling so many of these kids that we didn't want them involved!" _Kids..._ Danny blinked, realizing that most of the Casper High students there were his age, a few were older. _No,_ Danny realized. Kids in nature, not age. He remembered how Jazz had gone on about being an adult in a teenager's body and realized that, snotty or not at the time, she was onto more than he had realized. They should have been busy studying or gossiping, not preparing for a battle where many of them would be taking a different route to the Ghost Zone than the portal that had given Danny his powers and started everything.

"Yeah, we were." Valerie admitted, "But I think that a lot of them learned the lesson. They know that this isn't just a Box Ghost run in. They've seen the news of what _he_ can do, and his army. They volunteered knowing what's going to happen and a lot of them are as ready as you can be for fighting. It's not your fault that they're willing to do this."

"Maybe." Danny answered, "But I've told you how much this is my responsibility. I just can't believe how much things have changed since we met these guys as an organization, not a last minute collection for a crazy rescue stunt." He closed his eyes, remembering the first time he had met so many of these students as an organized group. No, it was not the time he had unified them to fight Youngblood, nor the time where he stood in front of the world to save it from the Disasteroid. It was after a moment of desperately using his powers to avoid the fans and being caught over it, and an alternative punishment done to keep fairness yet recognize the demanding circumstance. Valerie had been there with him, and she was the only one who had heeded the points he tried to make, when her role as a ghost hunter had eventually been revealed when she stood in to save them from their own overconfidence.

Now, he realized that he would have given anything to turn the mood back to what it had been then, the level of danger the city faced to what it did. To have leading them into a war against ghosts to be nothing more than a distant fear of a worst case scenario, blissfully unaware of what he now faced. _Yes... simpler times... when I was more worried about getting detentions than going all dead instead of just half and leading others to join me there..._

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**Chapter One**

**The Present**

**Casper High, Amity Park**

_"Danny! Danny! Danny!"_

The chant was getting closer as Danny ran down the halls at full speed. He had just stopped an attack by Johnny 13 in front of the whole school, the biker ghost attacking him mostly to blow off steam after Kitty was captured by Walker, and as a warm up for the rescue. Danny had instead captured him and his stupid Shadow in the Fenton Thermos and switched back to human form since school had started. Unfortunately, the whole fandom was out that day and saw it, and were in a full fan frenzy of black and white. "Man," Danny muttered as he leapt up the stairs, "I thought dodging from Dash was bad enough, but now everyone wants me!" He turned and saw another crowd coming down, Paulina in the lead. Gasping in realization, Danny turned to the last route he had to get to class where he would be vaguely safe with Lancer...

He leapt up to the side stairs and climbed over the railing, vaulting over with the athletic capability he had developed from his heroics, starting to take gym class seriously, and just a hint of flight powers to make sure he cleared the jump. As he ran up this flight of stairs, however, he realized that a _third_ crowd had headed him off. "Darn it!" Danny shouted as he realized he was cornered with nowhere to go. Bracing himself for the mob, he was trampled in the group as he tried to struggle free and past them. Everyone was trying to hold onto him, some of them wanting him to sign their DP memorabilia (or worse, he could of sworn Paulina had tried to shove an undergarment into his face), but most of it was mindless fan love. Suddenly, he found himself unable to breathe, crushed beneath the weight of his own fans. _Irony, death by..._ he paused, everything slowing for him as the realization hit him. He smirked and his eyes began to glow green. _Screw this, I'm already half dead..._ He did not even need to go ghost, he just turned intangible, then invisible, and phased into the floor and flew to class through the building. Hopefully, the delay of realizing he had phased clear would buy him time to get to class where the bell would save him.

He phased up from below the floor outside the room, out of sight of the door's window, and released his powers as he landed gently on the floor and breathed a deep sigh of relief. "Phew, just avoided them..."

_"Ahem."_ another voice cut in and Danny turned in horror, almost voiding himself as he saw Lancer standing there with arms folded. "Well _Phantom of the Opera_," the bald English teacher stated plainly but sternly, "using powers on school property during school hours. It might not be the most agreed upon of rules as far as punishment goes, but it is a violation per the emergency patch." He gestured to the door. "Speak to me after class so we can discuss your punishment." Danny gulped as he walked in, taking his seat near Sam and Tucker who raised an eyebrow at him. Glumly, Danny pulled his books out and sighed as he found all his pencils broken from being crushed by the fans, who shortly after began filing in with the late bell. _At least the Thermos wasn't crushed,_ he decided given it had a ghost inside.

"What happened?" Sam asked.

"I got mobbed after beating Johnny 13 outside," he explained, "and I had to go intangible to dodge them since they had me on that corner in the stairs." Tucker shivered, well aware of what a death trap it could be. "Lancer caught me as I came out, though."

"Oh boy." Sam said as she sighed, "This might be a problem. My parents are seriously considering that restraining order again after the Technus incident, and I told them that you were a good guy and all. My grandmother talked them out of it, but still..."

"I doubt they'll flip over this, but here's hoping they don't anyways." Danny retorted as Lancer briefly lectured the class on tardiness before beginning the lesson. Danny spent the majority of the class worrying. It was an honestly minor situation and one that would be fully understandable when Lancer had the details, but Lancer was strict in his fairness. But it also brought up other worries, his conversation with Sam about the political reality and how even though he saved the world, he was still one of the most powerful, personally, individuals on the planet and a walking superweapon. _Oh man, what are my parents going to say?_ He was left wondering the whole time, wishing for class to finish so he could get it over with.

When the bell finally rang, he told Sam not to wait up and walked over glumly to Lancer's desk and was surprised to see a concerned face on Lancer. "Daniel, let's be honest here." Lancer began with open palms, "I'm aware of what occurred and seeing the state of your backpack..." he glanced over to the battered books and the broken pencils, "...I suspect that you were mobbed again."

"Yes sir," Danny answered truthfully. "It was bad enough I was having trouble breathing."

To his surprise, Lancer nodded slowly. "I understand. However, I have to keep the precedent of _fair to all_ present, even the resident town superhero. That said, I am willing to offer an alternative punishment to a week's worth of detentions, if you want to hear it, one you may very well find suitable for longer than making penance."

"What's the alternative?" Danny asked tentatively, remembering the last time he had done a 'get out of detention' scheme for Lancer and how he had nearly gotten the whole town sucked into an eternal Halloween where the scares were real.

"Axion Laboratories has recently given the school a grant," Lancer explained, "they want us to train those willing to be better prepared for the research they are going into. They want students who are familiar with the nature of ghosts and are untainted by, shall we say, older lines of thought in regards to them."

"So, they want students and potential employees with a better background on ghosts, because of how often they show up here." Danny said, filling in some blanks like 'older lines' referring to his parents' research, though given Lancer's comment of long term he also ruled out experiments. Cruel as Lancer could be as a teacher at times, he never would endanger his students to amateur science experiments in a comparatively new field.

"Correct, and I suspect that you showing them firsthand how some ghosts work and what works on them might help. We've tentatively called this 'Ghost Club', and you offering some displays on the basics instead of detention would be what I'm offering you as an alternative. A few meetings should cover it, enough to be equivalent to detention time plus some more. Though, be aware, detention can be crowded when there's a celebrity."

_No choice at all really,_ Danny decided as he figured out what the clever glint in Lancer's eye was. Be mobbed in detention as a bunch of kids try to get into it just to see him where he could not dodge out, or try somewhere where he would at least be able to get clear and, if he kept things quiet long enough, would be more reasonable. "I'm assuming this means that I'm free to use my powers during this, given this is 'firsthand'."

"Correct, though none of that overshadowing business and you pay for whatever you blast if it's school property. Yes, that includes shipping and handling." Lancer explained as he noticed the bell was about to ring and Danny recalled that this was Lancer's free period. "I'll write you a pass to your next class. The first meeting is on Thursday, right after school in the auditorium."

"Got it." Danny answered. He had the rest of the day and the school day of tomorrow to get ready, and he had a few ideas already. "I'll take the alternative then. You might want to send me a list of what's expected, so I can better prepare for it."

Lancer nodded as he finished writing the pass and signed it. "Stop by my office on the way out of school then." He handed the pass to Danny. "By the way, good job on that last essay."

"Thanks," Danny answered awkwardly as he took the blue slip of paper, "I uh, had a little more time since I don't have to dodge constantly to hide my identity."

"Well then, you better hurry." Lancer said as the bell rang. "I'm sure Miss Tetslaff is eager to run you through the gauntlet."

_Oh, crud._ Danny thought as he hurried out the door, remembering that there was a fitness test today and Tetslaff was never kind about them, or lateness even with a pass.

XX

"So, what's the damage?" Tucker asked as they were running through the obstacle course together. Danny was able to do it consistently, though Tucker still had problems despite the endurance his human body had finally built up from ghost hunting.

"I basically have to either take a week's worth of detentions, or go to this new Ghost Club thing for a few meetings." Danny answered as he leapt up on the pull-up bar and lifted himself up. "I'm taking the latter."

"Threat of fans in detention?" Tucker as before dropping into the sand with a quick scream.

"Threat of fans in detention." Danny answered, deadpan as he finished and swung forward to keep ahead so Tetslaff did not start using him as a dummy. While some of the other teachers had given him a little space, likely for the same reasons Kwan had been so freaked out about hitting Tucker with a football the other day, Tetslaff kept chewing him out, and with Lancer and Faluca she made a triumvirate of teachers who showed no fear of his powers. Danny ruled that as a good thing, much as he wanted to start acing his classes, he wanted to be a better man at it than Dash. _Now, a little understanding when we have a lot of crazy flying around..._ he mused as he leapt up to grab the monkey bars and started climbing across before leaping down and sprinting to the end.

Tetslaff nodded slowly as he crossed. "That'll do, Fenton. Consistent timing that's slowly getting better. Suppose it works out more than nothing."

"Thanks..." Danny said as he caught his breath. He never quite realized how much he had depended on his powers until he was stuck running her gym classes. And after Skulker had nearly skewed his head off because his latest suit was fully functional while Danny was losing his abilities, he decided to take physical education a lot more seriously. Tucker crossed the line soon after with another resigned sigh from Tetslaff, and the two walked over to the case of water bottles.

"Man, I need to hit the gym at this rate." Tucker said as he pushed on his back, arching his body backwards with audible cracks. "This is killing me."

"Yeah," Danny agreed as he pushed his hands to hopefully relieve his tired arms. "I've tried that weight room, it works pretty good..."

"Wait, Dash lets you in there now?" Tucker asked in confusion.

"Well, yeah." He shrugged like it was obvious. "I mean, if you were him wouldn't you want to say Danny Phantom worked out in your gym? Or at least the gym you pretty much run even if it's the school's."

"True," Tucker acquiesced as he reached for his PDA. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to do a little technogeek recovery." He walked into a corner to start using his PDA while he had a break and Danny simply shook his head._ Ah Tuck, that's not going to help. At least walk while doing that..._

"So," Sam asked as she walked over, having finished the course long before anyone else. "What are you going to do for GC?"

"GC?" Danny asked cluelessly before realizing what the acronym was. "Oh. Yeah. Right. Well, I'm going to get a folder on what's expected after school then find something out. I might just do some demonstrations on basic abilities."

"Well, it's probably better than everyone trying to get into detention just to be near you. But still, be careful. You don't want that to turn into fangirl central, and we have plans that night."

"I know," he answered as Tetslaff blew her whistle for everyone to head inside and change back into their normal clothes. "But, we'll see what Lancer wants. Hopefully, it won't need too much and we'll be free."

XX

**Several Hours Later**

**FentonWorks**

"Okay, this shouldn't be too hard," Danny said to himself as he flipped through the folder in his room, glancing up at the X-23 model space helmet he had kept from Axion Labs for his infrequent jaunts into the void of space, musing that stopping someone's supercomputer from being abused (even if he blew it up) had its perks before turning his mind back to what he was doing. "Show a few ghost basics, show how a few common anti-ghost gadgets work, explain some basics of what I know, generally help out." He nodded his head back and forth idly as he considered. _Well, showing them how to use some basic gear like the Thermos wouldn't be a bad idea, but I'm not sucking myself into it and I'm not dragging Sam or Tucker into this even if they volunteer. So that means we need a ghost for dummy duty._ Yet, he did not want to bring a ghost that was seriously dangerous into Casper High intentionally. But he also wanted one he could convince to be passive for the demonstration, ruling out the weak, non-sentient blob type ghosts he sometimes destroyed just by punching them hard enough as Phantom. He thought through the list of those he would seriously ask such a question. _Definitely not Frostbite, Wulf would scare pants off even if he was happy to, Clockwork stays on the down low, Cujo would be ghost animal abuse, and Dora's all busy keeping Aragon and his remaining supporters from rising up..._ Dora. For some reason, that was giving him an idea.

"Of course!" He realized with a wide grin, "Pandora. Or, specifically, a certain ghost who's only dangerous with her box." And, he realized, the Box Ghost might appreciate a break. He needed to check a few things first with Lancer to make sure they were allowed, but it seemed like he had a plan. Do some basic demonstrations of basic ghost powers, possibly have someone throw a few things at him to show how a lot of human world objects at high velocity just pass through harmlessly (though not the other way around), then use the Box Ghost to show how a Fenton Thermos works.

He blinked a moment as he recalled Jazz in her more uncharacteristic moments in ghost hunting. _Right. Some of these guys might get too eager. I'll have to make sure I'm clear that I'm showing it in case they have no other option but self defense, that I don't want them jumping in, and that ghost hunting has a lot of risks._ Unbidden, images of the close calls they had came to him, and his more dangerous foes. Undergrowth, Pariah Dark, Dan, Vlad, the Fright Knight, Nocturne... even his more mundane foes were dangerous when they wanted to be. Skulker, Walker, the Lunch Lady, Spectra and her snippy little assistant Bertrand... they were lethal when they wanted to be, even if they were normally not so threatening. While most did not care for collateral damage, they never sought to cause it for its own sake. Walker's wide array of attacks was close, but that was at least damage with a reason, to cause the town to turn against him.

He exhaled, putting the worry off. While he had rallied them against Youngblood, most of them would probably prefer to avoid getting hurt in a fight and his fights were usually comparatively quiet. But, the thought of what would happen in a larger mess like Pariah's attack worried him. _If there's an attack that big, they're in danger anyways,_ he finally reassured himself as he turned his computer on and started going through the family files on ghost gadgets and looked for the ones that were common anti-ghost devices. The Thermos was a Fenton unique design other than that one Vlad knock-off that Valerie had tried to use the first time they fought, but that was an important tool of the trade in Danny's mind. _Okay, ecto-guns I'm not even considering bringing in, though I should talk about them._ He saw the Specter Deflector's file and realized that with a GIW version out there, that would be one to go over, though he was not going to even touch it while active. _And I'm not letting it out of my hands either,_ he silently added as he looked for other common pieces he could borrow.

XX

**Wednesday, After School**

**Casper High**

"Looks good, Mister Fenton." Lancer said with a nod. "Within school rules and no real weapons brought. However, I am slightly concerned that you plan on bringing that... what was he, a caterer?"

"Box Ghost," Danny corrected, "But he's the only one I could think of using for a combat dummy to show how a Fenton Thermos works and the only one I would be able to talk into doing this."

Lancer put down the write up Danny had given him. "Let me guess; being used as a dummy is better than what he's stuck with?"

"Well, how'd you like to be getting constantly zapped while being forced to clean up a maze for the lady you stole something from?" He shrugged. "I went into the Ghost Zone last night, he'll do it and his jailer is fine with him getting a little break... and a chance to do some of his penance here or something to that effect."

Lancer nodded. "And this 'Box Ghost'? How dangerous is he?"

Unbidden, he remembered the future version of the Box Ghost he had met when he was shot into the Ghost Zone ten years in the future. _Beware..._ He almost shivered, remembering how that normally cheesy catchphrase had scared the remaining half of his life from him. He pushed the thought aside. "The most dangerous is when he had a few upgrades, 'secretly borrowed' from his jailer before she got him. Otherwise, he's a cakewalk and easy to contain. He's only coming out to demonstrate how the Thermos works anyways, otherwise he's staying in it."

"Good, good." The round shaped English teacher was smiling, "Now, realizing how hard it is to plan for classes, don't you?"

"Uh, yeah." Danny replied awkwardly as he rubbed the back of his neck. "So, anyone of note joining in?"

"Danny?" someone else asked; a girl. Danny turned and saw Valerie standing there. "Wait a second," Valerie said as she visibly connected the dots. "You're in this ghost club too?"

Lancer glanced to Danny and nodded, Danny catching the clue that it was alright to tell her it was a dodge. "Yeah. Technically, it's an alternative to detention and the fans."

Valerie frowned and folded her arms, almost daring Danny to tell her what he did and giving him a glare that could kill.

"Don't worry, Miss Gray," Lancer cut in. "I checked the rules before offering the choice to him and it is permitted. This is not the first time that students have done other things to avoid detention, though most of them did things worse than what he did."

"Powers?" Valerie asked, loosening her expression as she connected the dots.

"Yeah."

"Fans?"

"Again."

"And to think I was once part of that crowd." Valerie almost sounded disgusted at the thought. "Anyways, I'm going to a few of those meetings too; my dad suggested it since it's an Axion backed thing and all."

"Good," Danny said with a warm smile, "It'll be nice to have someone I know there." And, unsaid, someone who could protect the club if he was not around and a ghost attacked because they were delving into that subject matter.

"No need to dodge the issue, Lancer knows." She pointed out, the gauntlet part of her hunting armor forming around her fist before fading after the brief display. Danny nodded in understanding.

"So, you're security if things go down the tubes?"

"Not quite. Most of the school still doesn't know of her... activities." Lancer cut in as he handed Danny the folder. "I can't say I'm impressed, but her father is allowing her and she isn't bringing weapons onto school property. Or at least, any more than you would just entering the school. You better fill in Miss Gray on what you have in mind."

Danny nodded and passed it to Valerie. "It's pretty simple; I'm going to go over some basic ghost abilities, and some of the common things you see with ghosts. So, the Thermos, Specter Deflectors, that sort of thing. No ecto-weapons like your old grenade launcher, but I plan on going over the generics of an ecto-weapon quickly. I got the Box Ghost lined up as a dummy for showing how the Thermos works."

Valerie looked it over and nodded. "I'm guessing you're going to ask what Axion had in mind getting the club made in exchange for a grant, aren't you?"

Danny and Lancer glanced at each other and shrugged. "Yes, if you know, that'd help a lot." Lancer said.

"I'm sorry, but I don't have that either." Valerie closed the folder and gave it back to Danny. "All I know is they wanted a little more awareness on some of these... eh, 'physics' involving ghosts considering they've been doing a lot with them lately." She looked to Lancer. "Still, I'm surprised the school's fine with it. You'd think that it'd be one of those _too dangerous_ deals."

"Well, we all know that at some point students are going to make a club for ghost hunting or something like that." Lancer pointed out, "And with young Daniel here... how do you say it? _Kicking ghost butt_ all over town, they might think it's easy." Danny and Valerie glanced at each other awkwardly at Lancer's attempt at modern slang; particularly since it was less awkward than usual. "Better to have a pre-set club that keeps some lines on it then them going and doing it on their own."

Valerie nodded slowly as she rubbed her chin thoughtfully. "Alright. Well, I'm not known around school for what I do, but if they do start doing something crazy we have that safety net. It's probably not a good idea to get them actively hunting like you do with Sam and Tucker."

"Agreed." Danny answered, "But let's be fair, ghost attacks are common enough here that they should know the basic tools of the trade and how to defend themselves long enough to run and escape. Honestly, right now I'm more worried about it turning into fan central if word spreads that I'm there."

"Don't worry about that," Lancer pointed out, "the club can only hold so many people, and we're already mostly full. Now, the first meeting is tomorrow and I need to correct your papers, so you should probably get going."

The two nodded and left. Outside, Danny glanced to Valerie after making sure the halls were clear, finally both remembering and having the chance to ask. "You know, I never asked why you weren't angry when you found out. I mean, besides the circumstances making it a bad idea. I know we briefly talked after, but I never asked why you weren't angry, and I should have."

"Partially because you came over and explained it to me. I was still debating if I was going to still go after you, then you pointed out that you knew it was me since I started." Valerie shrugged. "I thought it over after, and realized that I'd of been terrified of telling me about it too, and then I compared some of the fighting footage of you fighting other ghosts and our little chases and realized you were never trying to seriously injure me, just get me off your tail."

He blinked, surprised that Valerie was so forgiving. _This is pretty out of character for her. She's usually so determined that it's hard to sway her._ Then again, he had to remind himself, he was able to get her to end up being pretty good friends with Danielle. Or maybe they had some sort of connection. But, he remembered when Technus had possessed her old suit. "What about me revealing your secret to your father? Or the time I blew up your suit in front of you? I was pretty sure you thought I tried to waste you."

"Well, looking at you as just Phantom, yeah. I assumed you were, it was one of my main reminders of why I had to be against you even as everyone called you a hero. After the Disasteroid and you talking to me, I started considering some of my points, trying to see it. I knew you muttered something by name about me then, then shouted you weren't holding back. I never thought of it as realizing you didn't need to hold back until I thought of how you'd be trying to figure things out there. As for revealing it to my father..." she shrugged. "Well, he'd of found out at some point anyways. I suppose having it over and done with worked out better in the end."

He nodded. "Yeah, I'm sorry about that, but I didn't want to start a fight and possibly trash the ecto-skeleton... ah, Nathan isn't in the club, is he?" Danny asked to change the topic as he saw the dejected geek walking up the stairs.

"Nope. Kwan is, but not Dash. Mikey's in it, though." Valerie answered, catching on extremely quickly to the topic change and lowered her voice. "Still, keep my other activities on the DL, would you?"

"No problem; it's your secret." He paused a beat as he realized he had, technically, betrayed it once. _Wow, now I feel like a jerk._ "If you want, we can finish this later."

"Yeah, when we find the time, though I'd say there isn't too much to finish besides comparing notes."

XX

**Thursday; After School**

**Casper High**

"Tell me again why I agreed to this?" the Box Ghost demanded as Danny let him out of the Fenton Thermos for a few moments, though he kept it primed and pointed at him in case he tried to run. They were in a side room as Danny wanted no collateral if the Box Ghost decided not to cooperate.

"Because you're sick of being zapped by a pissed off Greek ghost of high power?" Danny asked, still in human form. "Look, I'm not going to be shooting you with ecto rays or punching you through walls unless you try to break away. You're just going to be Thermos fodder for a few rounds, then it's back to the Ghost Zone and the acropolis. Honestly, the fact that you just had to spend a day in there is probably a break from the perils of Pandora."

The blue skinned ghost glanced both ways and sighed. "Yes. This is true. BUT BEWARE... my eventual ESCAPE!"

Danny simply sighed and shoved the Thermos into his face and activated it, sucking the ghost inside. _Well, this shouldn't be too hard. Show a few things off, get out of here._ He clipped the Thermos onto his belt and quietly entered the room where they were hosting the meeting; one of the larger science classrooms which had a full lab setup and plenty of open space up front for science project displays. _Or,_ Danny thought as he stood in back where all the members of the new club were not looking, _showing fellow teenagers how ghosts tick._

"Well then, have fun with your first meeting." Lancer said as he finished at the front of the room and walked out. Danny recognized Ricky Marsh taking the front, the brown eyed and freckled science nerd beaming in the white jacket he always wore... and it was covered in something from his science experiments. He took the opportunity to recognize some of the students within the club. Kwan was the easiest to spot, the only jock in the group. He recognized a few of the band geeks like Lyle, who was busy cleaning his spit valve. Mikey and a few other nerds were there, and he was certain that it was Paulina hiding behind some of the larger kids. _Figures, even if she wants a glance of me she's careful not to get associated with the 'losers'._ Exactly why he had realized she was not worth his time or effort. Which reminded him that he could not afford to stick around too long; he had a date with Sam that night.

Ricky coughed into his hand to start the meeting. He was somewhat shaky, but he had enough confidence to keep his cool up there in front of the crowd. "So, welcome to Ghost Club. I'm Ricky Marsh, and I've been selected to be acting-president of the club until we iron things out. We're here to study the paranormal that always comes into good ol' Amity Park."

"So we're going to be hitting ghosts?" Kwan asked.

"It might come to that, but hopefully not." Ricky said. "We're not a ghost _hunters_ club, though I got a feeling we'll get a taste of that just from being here in Amity Park. That said, we do have a guest speaker here today. Everyone give Danny Fenton a warm welcome."

Danny took his cue and walked up between the desks, smiling awkwardly as he passed by Valerie and Kwan. He was sure he heard Paulina cooing in awe that Phantom was here, even if he was hidden under the guise of the former generic victim of the school.

"Uh, hi guys." Danny said as he reached the front, trying to mentally block out the DP shirts a few students were wearing. "So, I'm pretty much going to give a couple basics. General gist on the nature of ghosts, some common ghost gadgets you see, that sort of thing." He pulled the Specter Deflector and put it on the lab table in the front and put the Thermos next to it. "I'll also give a quick rundown on powers and some basic pointers if you get attacked. That said," he put a hard edge into his voice as he grabbed the Fenton Thermos and hit 'release'. The Box Ghost popped out, disoriented, and the group had just enough time to recognize the ghost when Danny activated the Thermos again and sucked him inside. "Ghost hunting is _not_ as easy as shoving this guy into the Thermos every other day. There's a lot of risks involved, so I don't want you going out doing it on your own even if I am giving you guys some pointers on defending yourself." He put the Thermos onto the table again and plugged a flash drive into the computer and brought up the power point and clicked it to an image of one of the many blob ghosts he had fought before. "Alright then, let's start with the basics on what a ghost is. There's a couple varieties, which I'll go over shortly, but the general gist of a ghost is they're some sort of ectoplasmic being with varying levels of power and sentience."

"You almost sound like they're people." Paulina said with surprising conviction. "But, aren't they just like demons or something?"

"Well, a lot of ghosts like the Box Ghost here," he gave the Thermos a quick shake, "were people once. Still are, in a lot of ways. I'll get to that later. Now, I've generally ran into a few basic categories. One I'd just call 'blobs', like the one up on the power point." He nodded his head towards it. "Generally speaking, they're the weakest and have minimal to no sentience, more being pure instinct. Sort of what you think off when you assume monster. I've occasionally destroyed some just by hitting them hard enough." He paused to let the few kids taking notes catch up, amusingly Valerie was amongst them even though she knew most of this already by benefit of Danny sharing some of his files on ghosts with her. "Now, this is only a theory, but my guess is they're the Ghost Zone's equivalent of early life; single celled stuff or whatever Mr. Faluca said. Just ectoplasm instead of cytoplasm."

He clicked the mouse and the power point shifted to a few file photos of some of Danny's regular rogues' gallery, specifically those with some notability in Amity Park. Specifically, the Box Ghost, Poindexter, the Lunch Lady, Youngblood, Skulker, and Ember. "These are generally what you'd consider a shade or echo of some sort. A lot of them I've dug up history on as to who they were before they somehow ended up dead. They're all sentient, though I don't know enough to tell you if any of the sentience was lost in the process."

"Hey, isn't that Ember?" Kwan asked as he recognized the image.

"Yup." Danny answered. "She's a ghost."

"That... that puts the lyrics of her song in a whole new context." Kwan said, glancing down sadly.

"I know." He responded with a nod. "Now, these ghosts tend to be more powerful, though some are more along the lines of the Ghost Zone's equivalent of humans coming out of early life. A lot of them just want to be left alone, but the ones up on this image have various motivations for coming at us. Good news, though, is they can be reasoned with and I've ended up working with them a few times, like that whole Pariah Dark incident or the Disasteroid." He glanced around then hit the mouse to put it to the last slide for this topic.

"Now, the last group is made up of ghosts who are _of_ something, like the Fright Knight, Pariah Dark, Undergrowth... a couple of the ones who've started crossing over." The slide showed each of them. "They're ghosts who have some sort of domain, like the Fright Knight with Halloween or Undergrowth and plants, and as far as I know they were never human even if some of them have human like forms. They have all the traits of the last type, but are more powerful as a whole. Tentatively, I've used the term 'deity type' to describe them because of their power level and the fact that they have a specific role of being something."

"Wait, so you've been punting gods around?" Valerie asked in surprise, though it seemed to be more in response to the terminology than the fact that he could take on and beat such powerful beings.

"Not quite," Danny corrected quickly. "It's more of a temporary name because I can't think of a non-mouthful way of describing ghosts of some element with a lot of power and I haven't found any technical ghost classifications used by ghosts." He recalled how Vlad had become hailed as a deity in ancient Rome just by floating around and Hotep-Ra's scheme with Tucker. "Though, it wouldn't be too hard to convince cavemen who don't know about this stuff of that. The real shtick with these guys is they have some sort of domain to them. If you ran into one of them... well, I'd probably run as far away as possible and try to stay out of the crossfire." He paused a moment before amending the statement. "Or just do that for any fight going on." A quick cough into his hand, and he returned to his speech. "On the upside, all ghosts tend to have some sort of weakness based on their thing, and even these powerful ones have weaknesses. Take Undergrowth; freeze his roots and he becomes a lot weaker." He noticed that eHRicky had raised his hand. "Ricky?"

"Where do you fall in this, then?"

Danny realized he should have saw this one coming. "That was my next topic. The last 'classification' isn't really one, but you probably would be asking me anyways." He switched to Phantom form, the white rings passing quickly around him and changing him from human flesh to ghostly ectoplasm. "Half-ghosts, or 'halfa' as it got coined in the Ghost Zone, are pretty much an unknown, even in the Ghost Zone. All I can offer you on the specific nature of them is some theory work based on what I've figured out. The big thing about half-ghosts, though, is..." he switched back to Fenton form, "the fact that they have two forms, one ghost, one human. I still show up on a lot of ghost scanners and can use my powers even as Danny _Fenton_, but I can pass through things like the ghost shield my parents have without issue." He shrugged. "I'd probably fall in a 'none of the above' if you wanted to use my categories. I can take on all three of the categories, but I'm definitely not as strong as the deity-type ones in direct comparison. I can beat them, but I usually need to nullify their power somehow, usually by some weakness like freezing Undergrowth's roots. Power level? Well, at first all I could do is the stuff every ghost can do, but over time I've gotten some more. I'll give you guys more on those later. So, any other questions so far?"

XXX

**End Chapter**

_A few brief author's notes:_

_Note that what Danny is explaining is all theory work for many things, particularly classifying ghosts. These are not meant to be hard classifications like an RPG class, but rather a general classification of where ghosts come from and my attempt to explain why some ghosts are pretty clearly dead people, others are just... things, and some like Clockwork are specifically treated like they are a natural part of the multiverse or are sort of like how ancient deities had some domain. Take them as the theories they are in-universe._

_Ricky Marsh is actually mentioned once in 'Splitting Images', and that he was pushed off the Monkey Bars by Sam in second grade after Tucker puked in her lunchbox and blamed it on him. I figured I might as well use him for the club since he's such a blank slate as far as canon went._

_Oh, and for those who track shipping with the character list: while this one does say Danny & Valerie for the characters, that does not mean it ships them. My general rule of thumb for using the characters is "who are the two primary characters in the story". So here, Danny and Valerie are the most important even if I'm keeping to DxS._


	2. Chapter 2

_"I'm concerned about this Ghost Club. Okay, not the idea of it, I mean letting Danny Fenton speak there. It's a bad move; some of those kids are going to think its a go-ahead to start fighting any ghost attacks on the school. Yes, having some kids with a better idea of what's going on isn't a bad idea, but what happens when they start smuggling in anti-ghost weapons bought from wherever or start leaping into those fights instead of following our safety procedures?"_

- Mister Faluca, Casper High math and sciences teacher, to Mister Lancer and Missus Tetslaff in regards to the Ghost Club. Tetslaff then proceeded to chew him out for being meek about kids growing some spine.

**Chapter 2**

**Casper High**

"Oh crud," the Box Ghost said before being sucked into the Thermos again. Mikey was grinning widely as he figured out the device. The Box Ghost had been doing some basic left-right dodging maneuvers, but Danny had warned him that he would go ghost and beat the snot out of him if he tried to escape or counterattack, and made it clear to the others that if Danny went ghost they were to not fire the Thermos in case he got sucked into it.

"Nice shot," Danny congratulated. He had gone over the general gist of the powers, giving them a rundown of intangibility, invisibility, flight, and some of the more offensive powers like ghost rays, though he never fired any, he just told them how they worked. He was now going over basic gadgets like the Thermos. The Box Ghost had been sucked in four times already, and now it was Valerie's turn. Released again, the Box Ghost looked at Valerie and quaked in fear before she flipped the switch and sucked him in.

"Wow, he seemed freaked about you." Ricky pointed out as Valerie capped the Thermos with a smug grin that Danny put down to finally figuring out how to use a Thermos. Valerie raised an eyebrow before Kwan helpfully interjected, unaware he was breaking a train of thought.

"So, Danny," he asked. "Why don't you use this as an opener in your fights?"

"Ah, that's the question I was waiting for." Danny said as he released the Box Ghost and let the next kid take a shot with it. "The Thermos can suck anyone in; heck, it sucks me in too when I go ghost. Conventionally speaking, it just takes time to aim and charge and I usually send them back into the Ghost Zone before holding them becomes too much of a problem. But, the main reason I don't use it as an opener all the time is because not every ghost _stays_ in there. With some time, a full strength ghost of sufficient power can break free with a little well placed power, unless they cooperate and don't try to break out." The Box Ghost was sucked in yet again, Danny glancing down on the capped Thermos as he checked to make sure it was still working properly. "If I tried to trap the Fright Knight in there without first beating him up, he'd probably break out within an hour or so, probably sooner."

"Don't they recover eventually, though?" Valerie asked as Paulina gave it a try and kept missing, Danny keeping a finger pointed at the Box Ghost ready to hit him if he tried something. "I mean, you seem to just keep coming for more from what the news shows."

"They do and yes, ghosts recover fairly quickly, but the Thermos impedes that. I mean, you try being crammed in there for a couple hours." Danny shrugged as Paulina finally managed to get the Box Ghost and suck him inside. "So, beating them up first then sucking them into the Thermos is my usual MO, then I just flush them into the Ghost Zone, though occasionally I have time to shoot the ghost as a starter."

"Don't they come back, though?" Ricky pointed out. "Strikes me like you don't really do anything to them but foil them and throw them inside."

"Yeah, but what am I going to do? Hold them prisoner at home?" He shrugged. "I hated those Masters' Blasters, but Vlad wasn't wrong about it being expensive to hold ghosts, especially ones as powerful as Undergrowth. Besides, the Ghost Zone has its own politics going on too, so they have to deal with their own home issues instead of just coming back for more on top of recovering."

"Still, it isn't really a permanent solution if they can just keep coming." Valerie cut in. "Chances are, with some of them we'd want that."

"Unfortunately," Danny answered. "There's some that I'd love to put down for a nice long while too. Either way though, the only permanent solution outside of long term entrapment in Thermos' and ghost shields that I know of is already used to contain Pariah Dark." He shrugged. "Besides, even if we got rid of all our portals, there's still natural ones on top of that, and some ghosts can make their own passages. So there isn't really a surefire way of separating everything." He glanced up as the Box Ghost was growling and his hand started glowing a light green as he charged a plasma shot. The Box Ghost stood still at the sight and was sucked into the Thermos by the next person trying.

"Alright. Let's give him a break." Danny said to the group. "Now, there's a few more pieces of gadgets I want to go over before this ends. One, ecto-weapons like the guns my parents make. No demonstrations for obvious reasons." He turned the power point back on and moved it to several pictures of various ecto-weapons and switched to Phantom. "The big selling point about these is that they don't just pass through a ghost when they hit." He glanced at Kwan. "Kwan, you have a hacky sack or something like that on you?"

"Uh, yeah." Kwan said as he rifled through his jacket and pulled the red sack out. "Why?"

Danny stood to make sure the angle was out of the way of anything fragile, which resulted in him floating a foot off the ground. "Throw it at me; aim for my chest or stomach."

The football player nodded after a moment and threw it at him with impressive velocity and aim. But, for all the velocity, it just passed through his ectoplasmic form without actually doing any damage to him other than a faint tickling sensation and hit the white board behind him. There was a brief whisper throughout the class before Danny dropped back to the floor. "Now, imagine that was thrown hard enough to break your bones or a sniper rifle out of _Doomed_. You'd have the same result, it'd just pass through." He picked up the hacky, switched back to his human form, and tossed it back to Kwan who caught it.

"Now, ecto-weapons would hurt instead of just passing through, whether they're made out of anti-ecto energy or an anti-ecto material. So, general rule of thumb is if you want to hurt a ghost, a twelve gauge with regular lead isn't going to do more than tickle them. Explosives..." Danny a tossed his head side to side as he weighed how much they actually did to him. "Well, it won't do a lot of actual damage and a tank firing at a ghost is more likely to cause collateral damage than hurt it, but an explosion can send ghosts flying if they're at point blank range from the actual explosion." _Or if its Nasty Sauce..._ "That said, it doesn't matter overmuch if the ghost just turns intangible. As I mentioned earlier, it takes energy to do that, hence why they rarely do it constantly. Ecto-weapons take more energy to stay intangible through, so in general an ecto-weapon is better even if you can hurt the ghost with it."

"What about humans?" Mikey asked. "Don't ecto-weapons also hurt humans, or do they just tickle?"

Valerie was about to say something, having full experience with the matter courtesy of her own ecto-grenade launcher, but Danny cut in before she dropped an answer that could help someone put two and two together. "Yes and no." Danny explained. "No, they aren't as lethal as a bullet. Yes, they hurt like crazy, but it depends mostly on the level of charge. Take my parents; as much as they would love to hurt ghosts, they are somewhat concerned about collateral, so they'd use lower power settings. That said, the Guys in White tend to fire full power, which can cause a lot of collateral. It depends on the power of the weapon, obviously, but against humans ecto-weapons are generally thermal in nature. The worst you get out of it is a burn mark where you get hit for most, but I would still try to avoid getting hit." He tapped the mouse and the power point switched. "The reason for this is mostly because the energy fired by ecto-weapons is designed to sear a ghost's form. Obviously, ectoplasm and human bodies have very different natures." He shrugged and recalled what the next thing was. _Specter Deflectors..._ he had a faint, mischievous grin as he realized that she was going to get a nice cheap shot.

"Now, Valerie, could you step up here for a minute?" He asked.

"Uh, sure." she asked in confusion, giving him a dirty look before raising her eyebrows in surprise. Danny grabbed the Specter Deflector. "This is a Specter Deflector; FentonWorks model, of course, but the GIW have their own version too. How does it work?" He gave it to Valerie. "Put in on, I'll demonstrate." He glanced at the Thermos and grabbed it before walking over to Ricky. "Could you hold onto this for a minute?"

"Sure," Ricky said, careful to avoid hitting the 'release' button. Valerie had finished putting the belt on and Danny, knowing what was about to happen, started reaching for her shoulder with as much of a stupid looking 'I got this' grin as he could muster while talking.

"Specter Deflectors are pretty much an anti-ghost generator. Ghost touches the wearer..." his hand had reached Valerie's and felt the shock shoot through his whole and yelped in pain. Some of the students pushed themselves up to respond before Danny recovered and grinned. "Well, it can tell if the wearer is a ghost even if they're a hybrid like me, and it shocks them." He padded his hair back down as Valerie disabled and took off the Specter Deflector. "Thanks for helping me show how it works, Valerie."

"No problem." Valerie answered, amused as she realized he was giving her a free cheap shot for all the times he had humiliated her in their duels. Or at least, that is what he assumed she thought he was doing (which it was).

"Now," Danny said as he took the Thermos back and moved the power point forward to an image of a deployed Ghost Shield. "Last thing before we go to some more Thermos practice and I stop yammering like Lancer on a bad day." That drew a couple chuckles from the crowd. "Ghost Shields; which are pretty simple. Sort of a larger scale Specter Deflector, though my dad made the original Deflector by cannibalizing parts of the shield for it. Ghosts who run into it get shocked and can't pass through. That said, half-ghosts can get through in human form."

"It's basically untouchable, right?" Kwan said. "I remember everyone hiding under it when we got sucked into the Ghost Zone."

Unbidden, he remembered the old, defenseless future version of Vlad describing how Amity Park had fallen: to a Ghostly Wail by the first halfa who had it... him_._ "Yes and no." Danny answered as he put the deactivated Specter Deflector away and tried to shove those thoughts aside. "Any ghost who hits it is going to be in a lot of pain. The shields are pretty much what you'd expect out of sci-fi: an energy field that stops things from passing through, but I've found that anyone who can dig through the dimensional barriers between our world and the Ghost Zone at will can also dig through a Ghost Shield. So while it does stop any ghost cold, I wouldn't rely on it entirely." Paulina raised her hand. "Yes, Paulina?"

"So, what happens when you get inside as well, a human. Can't you just turn into Danny Phantom after?"

"Normally, yeah. I don't know what Youngblood had on his ship to make it zap me trying to change without lighting his crew up like cannonballs." Danny shrugged, not quite sure why he was saying all that he was. Something to talk about with Sam, Tucker, or Jazz. Jazz would probably be able to psycho-babble about something that would explain it. "But generally, yes, I can go ghost and use all my powers once I'm through a shield. Any other questions?" There were none. "Alright, let's give the people who didn't have a shot a chance to use the Thermos, then I'm pretty much done with the presentation."

As the rest of the kids played Catch the Box Ghost with the Thermos, Danny talked with the various kids, trying to gauge a mood. What he found was not reassuring: a lot of them were eager for more and could not wait for him to come back. He constantly repeated that he did not want them trying to hunt ghosts themselves, warning them that ghost hunting was not as easy as trying to aim a Thermos at a ghost who had _agreed_ to be a combat dummy. It fell on deaf ears, except for Valerie, who did not need the warning. Sighing as he packed up and the meeting ended, he and Valerie were the only ones left in the room.

"So," Valerie asked with amusement. "What was the cheap shot for?"

"Well, besides you knowing how to take a Specter Deflector off and actually shut it off, I kind of felt like I owed you a shot back after some of the things I pulled on you when we were after each other." He hooked the Thermos to his belt and glanced at the clock. _Great, later than I expected. Not dangerously late, but I better hurry._ "So, how many of them do you think are going to try something stupid?"

"Most of them." Valerie answered with a surprisingly deadpan, unsurprised tone. "You heard Ricky and Mikey seriously talking about getting a group fund to buy some of your parent's gear?"

"Yeah." Danny said worriedly. "My parents would love some more business on top of the usual collectors and to replace Vlad buying-to-reverse-engineer, but I'm worried that these guys are going to get hurt as amateurs."

"Think you can talk your parents out of not selling them anything?" Valerie asked hopefully. "Axion Labs probably wouldn't, but they don't make any toys that I would give someone our age without parents involved."

"I'll try to convince them to make it the novelty stuff like a Finder. I doubt they'd sell the ecto-guns, but a Thermos? That they would have no compunctions against, might even offer a rebate for bringing in a real ghost." That was not something Danny was looking forward to even in the hands of competent people. He looked at the clock. "Anyways Valerie, I need to get going. I have to drop this boxed up ham back where he was, then I have a date with Sam."

"Ah," Valerie said with a nod. "Enjoy."

"Thanks." He switched his form, turned intangible, and leapt through the ceiling and into the afternoon sky.

XXX

**One Hour Later**

**FentonWorks**

Danny dropped out of the portal as it shut behind him, landing gently and switching back to his human form. His parents were not in the lab. He walked up the stairs and found his parents in the kitchen working on various devices. They turned as he walked up and smiled. "Hey, Danny!" his father said as he turned from the gadget he was working on. "Word on the street is you were teaching kids all about ghost hunting."

"Eh," Danny caught himself, realizing the rumor must have spread faster than he expected it to. "Well, no, not technically." As his parents frowned at him, he had to explain. "It was meant to be an overview of basics with ghosts, not 'this is how you hunt them down'. Thing is, with the basics it meant that I covered things like what hurts them compared to what hurts a human, and I think a lot of them are looking at it like 'this is how you hunt ghosts'." _Why am I even using the term hunt ghosts? I got hunted all the time; still am by the Guys in White. Should say something like 'stopping ghost terrorizing' or something..._ He dismissed that thought. Besides being a mouthful, there were various motivations for 'hunting' anyways.

"Well, we'd be happy to come in and show them things first hand," his mother said with a smile as she finished bolting down the last metal plate on what looked like an ecto sniper rifle.

"Uh, sorry. But Lancer made it clear I wasn't supposed to have you guys come in, and the club is kind of supposed to not be held back by 'older' lines of thought." Danny shrugged. "Personally, I don't see what they have against you guys, but I'm guessing it's because Axion Labs was the guys who gave the school the grant that let it happen."

"Course, Axion doesn't want those already set up to get the contracts..." his father spat in disgust. "I'm guessing that's why they'd like us to stay out of the picture..."

"Well... there are some members of the club seriously talking about buying some gear from you. And..."

"You don't want us to?" his father asked with a frown. "Why?"

"Well, I'm just worried they're going to jump headlong into one of our fights and get hurt." He shrugged awkwardly. "I mean, I can't really tell you guys to, but at the very least can you not sell them ecto-guns or stuff like that?"

"Don't worry, Danny," his mother said warmly, "We've only sold them to anyone who'd pass to buy a normal gun, or the military."

"Not that the Guys in White even wanted to try our stuff..." his dad said in disappointment.

"Anyways," his mother continued, "I don't think you need to worry about us selling anything too dangerous. The most we'll probably sell is a Thermos or a Specter Deflector. No bazookas, rifles, or Peeler suits."

"Alright, that's the most I can ask." Danny shrugged. "Anyways, I need to go get ready." He hurried out of the kitchen to get dressed for the date.

"Have fun!" Jack called as he went up the stairs.

XXX

"You sure we should just let that be?" Jack asked. "I mean, those kids are going to wanna hunt ghosts! It's a dream come true."

"Yeah, but..." Maddie answered, "I think we should let Danny handle this one. It's his friends, and he seems to be eager to keep them out of it."

"Why? I mean, don't he and his friends have so much fun doing it?" He was genuinely confused by the fact that his own son did not want to share the joys of ghost hunting, or why Maddie was agreeing with him. "Heck, he lead the kids on a raid once!"

"I have a feeling he figured that he could babysit them there, instead of them going off on their own. That, and everyone else was held prisoner on that ship so he was out of options."

"Alright. But we should still sell if anyone comes."

"I never said we shouldn't, but we should let Danny handle the Ghost Club on his own. Besides, maybe Lancer will think it's a good idea for actual hunters to come in later on."

XXX

**Fifty Minutes Later**

"So," Sam asked as their food after their served. "How was Ghost Club?"

"Not too bad," Danny said before taking a bite and swallowing. "Though, I'm getting worried about some of them. They're seriously considering putting a group fund together and buying Fenton gear. As in, Thermoses and Fishers."

Sam frowned as she swallowed a bite of her completely non-meat entree. "Seriously? Are they _nuts_?"

"No, just cocky." He answered closing his eyes, leaving Sam to wonder how much it had been eating at him since the meeting. "But I think I encouraged them even though I told them it was a bad idea."

"Presence?" Sam asked, catching on quickly.

"Yeah. I'm feeling like it was me just showing them basics that got them going. I'm worried that one of them is going to have to be seriously hurt for them to get the point, and if that happens..."

He did not need to finish the statement. Politics would come in, either with her parents or the parents of whoever got hurt, and then the whole thing would be a mess. Even if Danny was trying to discourage them from jumping into a ghost fight, she knew her parents rarely cared for such details like facts that ran counter to their views.

"Any of them mention Youngblood?" Sam asked. "Because that might be the big hole in your argument that they're using to justify the idea. You know, _must say this for liability_ and that kind of stuff."

Danny paled momentarily before taking a deep breath and calming down. "No, but that does make sense." He paused again and smirked, "then again, hypocrisy-for-the-greater-good seems to be hero standard." He curled his lip. "Not that I like that, but sometimes..."

"Sometimes things get real and there's no choice. If anyone tries to use it, just... just say it was a last resort or something. I mean, it _was_ shielded against you entering so you did need help." There was a rustle outside as Danny's ghost sense went off. The two looked to the window and saw Valerie, suited up, chasing down and fighting Ember. Danny sighed and started rising when Sam put a hand out to pin his to the table. "Easy Danny, Valerie can handle it. She phoned me before you got here and said that she'd handle anything that came up." With the obvious and unsaid caveat regarding a big attack.

"I dunno," Danny answered as he looked out at the spray of energy shots sailing into the air. Energy shots that Sam realized was not from her Technus based gear since it fired cyan rounds, not pink ones. "I feel like I need to jump in and help."

Valerie charged something on her wrist and hit Ember in the chest, shocking the ghost before shoving a thermos into her and sucking her in. _Where'd Valerie get a Fenton Thermos that worked... oh. Right._ Sam wondered how she forgot that detail so easily._ Skulker and his attack at Casper High last week..._ "See?" She said with a grin. "Nothing to worry about. Now relax and enjoy the night with your girlfriend already." She pulled him closer, and he smiled as the two leaned over and gently kissed.

XXX

**Outside**

Valerie saw the kiss, of course. Not that she was trying to, mind, she was just flying away and strapping the new ecto rifle to her back with its magnetic clamp strap, but it left her wondering what could have happened had she not pushed Danny away to continue ghost hunting. When she was blissfully unaware that she was telling the person she was trying to hunt down that she was breaking up with him to _protect_ him. The irony had smacked her in the face repeatedly ever since she found out that Danny Fenton and Danny Phantom were one and the same, and by that time he and Sam were in open love. _Well,_ she admitted to herself as she flew off. _At least the paparazzi... wait,_ she spotted an intrepid photographer on the roof preparing a reel and gently guided her jet sled down.

"'scuse me," she said to get his attention. The guy might as well have jumped a mile high in surprise before turning around and nearly dropping his camera.

"Oh, phew. Thought you were another ghost or something," he said in relief. "Don't mind me, I'm just getting a few pics for the _National Enquireror_ for an article on Amity Park."

"With a bungee rope and remote pulley." Valerie answered, folding her arms in a lack of amusement. "Seriously buddy, bug off. Leave the two lovebirds alone."

"Or what?"

"Or I could tell building security that they have someone on the roof and provide a recording. I have a combat cam running in this suit, you know. And they hired some new guys from Elmerton for security."

That freaked the guy out and he started packing up his kit. Valerie smiled and put the jet sled in motion, balancing herself as it flew into the air. She hovered just out of sight, making sure he left, before heading home. _I'll just pass the Thermos to Fenton in the morning, assuming I don't run into anything else._

XXX

**Monday Morning**

**Casper High**

"So, how much got sold?" Tucker asked worriedly as Danny was watching Nathan and Mikey talking about something that looked suspiciously like an undeployed Fenton Fisher.

"A two Thermoses and a couple Fishers. They wouldn't have gotten a single Deflector for the cost of that gear, though." Jazz answered. "Seriously, I don't get why our parents sold it to them."

"Well, we don't have Vlad buying up their stuff in secret to make his own duplicates, do we?" Danny pointed out somewhat angrily, "and the Jerks in White probably use their own tooling or do it through Axion Labs." The bell to get to class rang and he sighed when he started making his way to class when he nearly ran into Mister Faluca.

"Ah, Mister Fenton," the old math teacher said. "Could I have a word with you?"

"Uh, sure." Danny said, "You will write a pass, ri..."

"I told Mister Lancer that you would be late." He glanced up at Sam and Tucker, "Though, that did not include you two."

Danny glanced over, "I'll fill you in later, guys."

The two nodded and left while Mister Faluca lead him into a nearby room. "Now, Daniel, I know you don't mean to be getting those kids amped up to fight ghosts..."

"... but you want me to get away from the club, before they get any ideas." Danny finished. "Yeah, I saw the writing on the wall at the end of the meeting. But Lancer..."

"I spoke with Mister Lancer, and you don't have to go back, he's willing to consider your detention served."

_Wow,_ Danny realized. Lancer must have seen the writing on the wall too to be willing to bend on detentions. "I... I appreciate it, but I feel responsible for them, like I need to keep getting them to not try and go hunting. I mean, they've put me on the spot a lot on Friday even though I wasn't guest speaking there."

"Maybe." Mister Faluca admitted, "And I appreciate your concern, but I think it might be better if you stay away for a while, let them settle into not having a famous star in ghost hunting around all the time and move onto things like dissecting ghost stories for the truth or whatever."

He weighed the options, then realized that it might be a better idea. "Maybe. But, for now, I don't think they're ready to leap in on their own yet, especially with that sentiment running around."

XXX

**Noon**

**Casper High Cafeteria**

"Oh you gotta be kidding me!" Danny shouted as he started going ghost, white rings passing around him and his white shirt and blue jeans were replaced with his black jumpsuit. "They had to change the menu because the FDA ruled Casper Meatloaf as a safety hazard on account of melting the metal and ceramics that it was contained in! Get over it, there's nothing they could do about it!"

He had a feeling that the ghost attacking the school this time did not care about it, but he had a job to do, and he had to do it quickly before real damage happened. The Lunch Lady was growling, a half dozen of her meat monsters with her as she stood between the kitchen and the array of tables. Students were running every which way in a panic, and he was pretty sure Sam and Tucker had ran off to get a Fenton Thermos.

"_THEY CHANGED THE MENU!?"_ she shouted at the top of her lungs, "_THEY WILL PERISH!"_ She pointed her fingers forward, and a hailstorm of dishes from behind the counter started flying towards him.

"Whoa!" Danny shouted as he rapidly brought up a shield of energy to block the projectile dishes, which shattered and dropped to the floor in front of him where there were no students. "Ease off, there isn't any garbage here to have a garbage fight with! The vegetarian menu hasn't come back for a year."

XX

"It's not garbage, it's-" Sam began shouting when Tucker grabbed her and pulled her down, a large projectile pizza plate speeding past where her head had been.

"Come on, we need to get the Thermos!" Tucker shouted and the two sprinted for the door, only to find a pair of meat monsters in the way.

_"Danny!"_ the two shouted together to get his attention. He glanced towards them briefly and visibly freaked, but before he could act he was clobbered by a giant drumstick that came out of nowhere and was knocked into the wall.

"We have to get this door open," Sam said, "And I guess we have to fight!"

"With what?" Tucker asked, "I left my ecto-pistol at home and the guys in Ghost Club probably left their new toys in their lockers!"

Sam glanced at the various appliances lying discarded and remembered how Danny had taken out a half dozen of the monsters with a single circular kick. She grabbed the nearest tray, dumped the copious amounts of meat off (much to Tucker's disgust), and threw it at one of the monsters menacing Star. "With anything we can grab!" Sam answered as the tray caught the meat monster in the face and cleaved the upper half of its head off. Star ran away while Tucker grabbed a dish and hurled it like a Frisbee at the other ghost, cutting into its shoulder and taking an arm off. The monster charged him.

"Now what?" Tucker asked as it tackled him and Sam was jumped by a third monster. Two shots of green energy came in and blew the monsters apart and she looked up to see Danny floating above the chaos before offhandedly freezing another meat monster that the Lunch Lady had formed to replenish her casualties.

"Get everyone out of here, guys!" Danny shouted before he was tackled by another pair of meat monsters as the Lunch Lady began building a meat body around her.

"Working on it!" Tucker shouted back as the two rushed towards the door and started looking at what had happened.

"Gross," Sam said, "Jammed full of that disgusting meat. How many animals died to lock us in here, Tucker? How many were raised to be slaughtered purely for this?"

"I think we have bigger problems, Sam!" He paused a beat, then scowled. "And for the record, we did not get to the top of the food chain just to be vegetarians."

"I swear, Tucker if you ... Duck!" she grabbed him and pulled him down as a set of knives gone haywire from one of the Lunch Lady's missed attacks shot into the door. She looked up and saw Danny trying to stop the attacks as students were pushing on the other meat-clogged doors and trying to get open. _He needs an opening..._ she looked over and saw Valerie blocking one of the meat monsters with a tray and cutting its arm off, saving Paulina and Kwan's sorry selves as the two were stuck in a corner. "Come on, grab something heavy and let's take the heat off Danny."

"What? He's taking heat for us! We have to get the door open!" Tucker threw himself at the non-knifed part door to no avail.

"And we can't get this door open, but a plasma blast might work." She grabbed another pair of lunch trays and tossed one to Tucker. "Let's go."

XX

"Oh great," Danny muttered as the Lunch Lady finished making her meat form. "It's Pizza the Hutt. Well, at least there'll be no bikini-" he was cut off by a large meaty fist punching him across the cafeteria. Grunting as he hit the wall and fell down he rubbed his head, muttering under his breath. "What am I saying, I'm a guy..."

He leapt back up and charged his ice, firing it at the meaty Lunch Lady. The first set of blasts were resisted easily. _"This is not the freezer!"_ she shouted at him as he dodged another meaty punch.

"No, but meat goes bad if you leave it out!" Danny retorted as he turned intangible and leapt into the Lunch Lady's meat body before releasing all the cold energy he could muster from his core and phased out of the Lunch Lady. She had been frozen solid, but the meat monsters were still loose and seemed to be fighting with greater intensity. He came out lightheaded, but he still had most of his power left to fight and was recovering fairly quickly. He chalked it down to the full joys of halfa puberty.

_"Danny!"_

Jolted from his thoughts, he floated down and found Tucker and Sam cutting a meat monster's head off together with trays. He dropped down behind them and blasted a meat monster away. "What's going on guys? You should be getting everyone out of here!"

"The doors, we can't get them open!" Sam answered before yelling as she kicked a meat monster in the face and knocked it back. "_HOW MUCH FREAKING MEAT IS THERE IN THIS FREAKING SCHOOL_?!" she screamed in rage as the Lunch Lady started cracking the ice.

Danny looked down at his glowing green hands and focused, charging his powers before aiming for the main doors and blowing them off the hinges with a supercharged plasma blast.

"Hope we don't have to pay for that," Tucker said as students started streaming out, Valerie shouting over the chaos for everyone to get out of the cafeteria. "You want us to run?"

"Yes!" Danny called back as he grabbed a meat monster that was trying to clobber him with both hands with his own and froze it solid before shattering it with a single punch. "Get the Thermos!"

Sam and Tucker glanced at each other before they ran out with the rest as Danny turned to fight the Lunch Lady, who finally shattered the ice and scattered fast melting shards of it across the cafeteria, and the meat too. The Lunch Lady was still floating there, snarling in rage. "_Fools, lunch does not end until twelve forty-five_!"

Danny answered by blasting her with a ghost ray. "Yeah? Well maybe they're just bagging it outside!"

The Lunch Lady snarled and summoned another wave of silverware and fired it at him at high speeds. Spreading his spectral form, Danny dodged the various pieces of high speed utensils which embedded themselves or fell from where they hit the walls onto the floor, but when he pulled himself back together the Lunch Lady was blasting him out of the cafeteria. _With a giant bucket of soup._

Crashing into a set of lockers and lying in a puddle of the brown sludge that was Casper High's soup option, Danny rubbed the back of his head as he looked up at the Lunch Lady, who floated up and looked at him sweetly, cake floating next to her. "Would you like some cake?"

"Uh," Danny said as he tried to find a witty answer. "No, I won't let them eat cake?"

The Lunch Lady glowered at him. "What are you, some French princess?" She then hurled the cake at him, though Danny dodged it easily when he noticed the meat monsters running after the fleeing students.

"Oh no," Danny said as he realized what was about to happen and shot after them...

XX

"Are you nuts?!" Valerie shouted as Kwan, Mikey, and Paulina came out from the hall connecting to the school atrium where everyone else was trying to force their way out of the meat-blocked door. The former two had those odd Fenton Fishers, while Paulina had a Thermos.

"We'll get that ghost!" Kwan shouted as he activated the fisher. "These are blob ones, right? No sentience but weak?"

"Probably!" Mikey answered with a vicious grin that reminded Valerie of the scrapper lock so many nerds got into when using light blade weapons in _Doomed_. "And these fishers are made out of an anti-ecto material!"

"What about the Lunch Lady?" Paulina asked as she looked at the Thermos, "Should I use this on her?"

"Probably a good call, I don't think these meat monsters will fit..."

Valerie gasped as she saw the meat monsters rushing them. Kwan shouted and charged into them like a football player, knocking through some of them with the Fisher while Mikey slashed his around like it was a sword, having tied the hook on the end to have it a training sword of anti-ecto material. She started pushing her way towards them through the crowd; those idiots were going to get themselves seriously hurt fighting those things. They were doing good, admittedly, but a meat monster tackled Mikey and slammed him into the locker, leaving him to drop unconscious and slide to the floor.

"NO!" she heard an echoing voice shout and turned to see Danny leaping into the fray, jumping in front of Mikey and knocking the meat monster away before his ghostly glow flashed briefly and a green wave of ecto energy shot out from his feet, sliding towards the meat monsters and knocking them away.

"Are you _insane?!_" Danny shouted at Kwan. "You're going to get hurt!"

"But..." Kwan tried to retort.

"No buts, grab Mikey and get him out of the way!" Danny shouted back, then looked at Paulina. "You too."

"But..."

A loud, ghastly roar cut them off as the Lunch Lady charged at them from down the hall. Danny turned and charged his own ghost rays, missing as the Lunch Lady brought up a bucket of what looked like a ghost pirate's gruel to block the attack (and splattered said ghostly gruel across the hallway) when a large burst of whitish blue light fired out and engulfed the hallway.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" The scream echoed throughout the entire school and everyone froze to see the latest catch from a Fenton Thermos, and who was holding it: Paulina.

Too bad that she had missed and sucked _Danny Phantom_ into the Thermos, rather than the Lunch Lady, who turned towards the trio from the Ghost Club and a mix of various foods and knives rose around her. She was staring knives at the trio and Valerie realized they were one attack away from becoming human shish-ka-bobs.

And with Danny trapped in the Thermos...

XX

Paulina screamed as the Lunch Lady threw her attack at them, a scream that spoke of the worst nightmares of any student at Casper High. That one of their own would actually _die_ in one of the many attacks that had become so commonplace and almost a daily occurrence in Amity Park.

"NO!" Sam shouted as she sprinted forward, trying to open the Thermos in time to get the Lunch Lady, but it was too late. _Where's Danny, did that shallow witch suck him into the Thermos?!_

"Paulina!" Tucker shouted from behind her as he was also trying to open a second Thermos in time.

But the knives never connected, and Sam saw that Valerie stood there, covering the trio of amateur ghost hunters from the barrage of attacks.

With her left arm covered in the black and red armor that Technus had somehow connected to her, generating some blue shield that pulsated as it took the attacks.

And whispers shot through the crowd, not unlike those that had shot through the crowd, reminding Sam of the alternate reality that Danny had removed, when the Reality Gauntlet had forced him back to his human form in front of everyone.

With this, another of Amity Park's ghost hunters had her identity revealed to the world.

XX

**End Chapter**

_Author's Notes:_

_Thank you to those who have reviewed (Invader Johnny, Silver Sheryl, chadtaylor020). Constructive criticism and comments are a great help in getting feedback on what I'm doing so I can at least consider things that I might have missed._

_As to Danny's commentary on ecto-weapons and how non-ecto weapons just pass through him, that's referring to how solid objects would pass through him, and usually without him trying (such as Sam tossing a book at him in 'Shades of Gray') yet other objects still hurt him (Valerie's shuriken discs in the same episode, the aforementioned Nasty Sauce, etc.). Also, Valerie had been shot once so obviously they were still dangerous to humans, but even Valerie's not tough enough to tank getting shot in the chest (see 'Flirting with Disaster') and walk it off if ecto-weapons were just as lethal to humans as they are ghosts. So, it's a balance act of an explanation, with the usual handwave of yields/power level._

_And yes, given how the Thermos is shown to be easily capable of trapping powerful ghosts as an opener (see 'Reality Trip' where Danny sucks Freakshow into it without an issue, yet in most of his other fights it comes out at the end), there had to be a reason that was not the writers being lazy/trying to give us good fight scenes. The explanation here is still thin (though, as we've seen with the end of TUE, it has merit), but it at least justifies why Danny goes for beating up a ghost first before sucking them into the Thermos besides not having one with him/not enough time to aim. Ditto Danny not trying anything more to hold his enemies prisoner instead of just venting them into the Ghost Zone, though, it makes a lot more sense than not using the Thermos as an opener._


	3. Chapter 3

_"You're probably just glad to be able to talk to more than just Sam and Tucker about your adventures, Danny, and not be seen as crazy or some kind of obsessed freak. Or maybe you wanted to be listened to as who you were, as your human half in an area you knew well, and the club was a chance to do it. I wouldn't be too worried about that. And who knows, maybe you're a natural teacher and you never realized it. And it'd be hilariously ironic if you were."_

- Jazz Fenton, speaking to her brother after he asked her if there was anything in psychology that would explain why he felt like he enjoyed speaking at the Ghost Club meetings.

**Chapter 3**

**Casper High**

"What?!" the Lunch Lady shouted as her attempt to skewer the annoying wannabe opposition to her efforts to restore lunch to its sacred status was foiled by... by... this _girl_ who looked like she should be gossiping, not fighting like a veteran. "HOW?!"

"Surprised?" the black teen answered as her body glowed and more black and red armor formed around her whole body. The Lunch Lady recognized the style of armor, it was that of Nicolai Technus, but why did this _girl_ have it? And why was it able to form around her body spontaneously? "There's more than just Phantom around here to keep you ghosts from hurting people."

The Lunch Lady had just enough time to recognize a high powered blaster forming on her new, experienced enemy's wrist before she was blown into the air, intangibly into the ceiling, and out the roof. Snarling, she focused and created more meat monsters to throw at them. She would succeed even if she had to tear through every ghost hunter in town to do it...

XXX

"As for you, Paulina," Valerie said angrily as she ripped the Fenton Thermos from the alpha girl's hands and ripped it open, releasing Danny and leaving her to wonder how a he even _fit_ in there. "Leave the fighting to those with experience."

"B... b..." Paulina said in shock. "You... _you're_ the red huntress who keeps trying to kill _my_ Danny?!"

"_Your Danny_?" Danny asked in offense as he spilled out of the Thermos. "Yeah right. You shouldn't even be fighting, you're going to get hurt or..."

Three meat monsters tackled Danny and knocked him forward through the walls, interrupting his reprimand. But rather than putting a hole in the wall, which would have likely wasted Kwan, Mikey, and Paulina, they had phased through it into whatever room was on the other side. Hoping Danny could hold his own there, Valerie activated a glowing wrist blade and slashed the next meat monster as it tried to charge them. She saw Sam and Tucker fighting another pair of meat monsters down the hall, fairly sure she saw Tucker splattering one in the face with the bubbler that always had too much pressure in the pipes.

"RUN!" Valerie shouted at the two still conscious wannabe ghost hunters. "Take Mikey and _run_!"

But, Paulina and Kwan just grabbed the Fenton Fishers and rushed in... and the Lunch Lady came crashing back down and landed on Kwan, who screamed horrifically as his arm was crushed under the weight of another round of meat monster Lunch Lady. Paulina screamed when another meat monster clawed her chest and, unused to being counterattacked, she collapsed. Valerie growled, wishing she had a couple ecto grenades to force feed the Lunch Lady and buy more time...

Danny came bursting from the wall, grappling the Lunch Lady and punching her with an energy enhanced punch, splattering meat everywhere. Danny followed it up by crashing into her and knocking her up the stairs.

"Danny, the door!" Valerie shouted as she pointed to the blockaded main doors. "They're blocked!"

"Oh you gotta be kidding me. Cover me!" Danny shouted as he started charging his plasma blast again, hovering just a few feet above the floor so he could fire over the students' heads. Valerie activated her jet sled and leapt up behind him, cutting a meat monster trying to sneak attack him from behind into two and splattering the meat into the nearby lockers and the students closer to the back of the crowd. Danny fired the blast at the door, but it took the blast with only scorched paint to show for damage.

"Oh, right." Danny muttered angrily. "They were replaced with specter steel!"

"Specter steel?" Valerie asked as she shot a meat monster that was running for Sam and Tucker with a wrist blaster. She had never heard of _that_ material... Ectoranium, of course she knew of it, but specter steel?

"Yeah, a steel compound reinforced against ecto blasts!" Danny explained as he blasted another meat monster going for Paulina as she kept insisting on trying to fight. "Vlad gave a set of doors made of the stuff to the school to help compensate for damages old Lunchy did before the Blasters got here!"

"We can't protect everyone!" Sam pointed out as she and Tucker made it to them, gutting a meat monster with the dropped and now broken Thermos that Paulina had trapped Danny in. "The Lunch Lady is going to be back fast! We have to get that door open!"

XX

"I'll open the doors, then deal with her." Danny said as he realized it was time to go full powered. "Just keep those meat monsters back and be ready to cover your ears!" He shot towards the door and saw Dash right at the end trying to push it open.

"What's going on?!" Dash asked as he looked up. "Why didn't you energy stuff work?"

"Its sealed with meat and the doors are reinforced against my plasma!" Danny answered. He did not want to do a Ghostly Wail, even if he cut down on the power and cut it off after a second or two it would cause too much collateral damage and if he broke the right supports, would bring the school down on them. But, he did have other methods of weakening a target before blasting. He put his hands on the door, closing his eyes and started to pour cold energy into the door and the meat around it. He was more concerned about the ghost enhanced meat, but he needed a conduit to freeze it with. He could hear gasps as they saw the door froze, some screaming in confusion what he was doing before, hoping he froze it enough, Danny let go.

"Get back!" he ordered as he charged his plasma for another blast. Putting his glowing hands against the iced door, he blasted it open. The door itself survived, but the frozen meat was blown into the street and the doors flew open, green smoke rising from the doors where the plasma blast had hit.

"NOW RUN!" Danny screamed as he turned intangible and saw Valerie fighting the Lunch Lady.

XX

While Danny was dealing with the doors, Valerie found herself wishing she had not ditched all her credibility in the area by being decked out in full ghost hunting armor.

"But you're doing this!" Paulina shouted back as she stabbed a meat monster with the fisher. How Paulina was lasting so long after getting clawed left Valerie to wonder if there was not something more under that exterior of social plastic.

"Does it matter you stupid bitch?!" Sam shouted at her as she dodged the Lunch Lady's return attack, a ball of condensed meat hurled at sufficient velocity. "You have _no_ experience in this!" As Valerie turned to blast the Lunch Lady, the part of her mind that was not locked down into a combat focus wondered if Sam would have enjoyed bagging on the Latina if they were not in a fight and Kwan needed a doctor.

"So?!" Paulina asked as Nathan, seemingly emboldened, now joined in with Kwan's fisher. "Did you?"

"We gained it!" Tucker said as he shoved his PDA into a meat monster's face, taking it down before another reformed near him. "Nathan, _are you nuts?!_"

"Nope!"

_"ENOUGH!"_ the Lunch Lady shouted. "You are all breaking the rules of-"

Valerie turned to see Danny blasting the Lunch Lady with one of his ecto blasts. He flew up to the group as the meat monsters finally ceased for a moment as Paulina somehow decapitated the last one with the two fishers, Nathan having lost his grip on his. "Nathan, Paulina, get out of here!"

"Oh, so we have to go and you don't?" Paulina asked as Kwan groaned in pain. To her surprise, Dash had come back and was next to him.

"Dash..." Danny warned, temper audibly rising.

"Don't worry, I'm just getting Kwan out of the way!" Dash answered, "You hit them, I'll pull him out of the way!"

_Wow. The school idiot jock has more sense than these guys._ Valerie did not know if she should be amused or disappointed. Dash was surprisingly careful too as he pulled Kwan back.

"Well?" Paulina asked as the Lunch Lady dropped back down at the end of the hall for another round.

"Sam, Tucker, leave a Thermos here and get these two and Mikey out." Danny ordered. "Valerie, you keep any meat monsters off of the kids while they run. Once they're clear, get back here with a Thermos. I'll keep the Lunch Lady busy until then if I can't trap her myself."

"Got it," Valerie answered with a nod. It seemed like a good plan to her and she had poor maneuverability in the school on her jet sled.

"You're not the boss of me..." Paulina began when Tucker shouted a warning and everyone dodged except for Paulina and Nathan, who were caught by a deluge of meat the Lunch Lady had summoned from the remains of her monster form and tried to flood the hall. Valerie had been knocked back off her board, but she was able to start blasting the meat and slow down the deluge enough to stop Dash and Kwan from being flooded, but Mikey was caught in it and buried.

XX

Tucker groaned as he hit the locker, ending up next to Mikey and saw him buried. "Oh no," he said as he started digging through the meat with his hands to free him as Sam tossed Danny a Thermos as he charged towards the Lunch Lady.

"_NO! HOT CHOCOLATE IS ONLY SERVED IN DECEMBER!"_ the Lunch Lady shouted.

"Oh just shut _up_!" Danny shouted as he ripped the cap off of the Thermos. "THIS ENDS NOW!" he screamed as he turned it on and sucked the Lunch Lady into it. As soon as she was sucked inside, he capped the Thermos angrily and dropped down to the meat covered floor. Glowing more intensely as he reached into the meat pile, he phased his arms through it and pulled both Paulina and Nathan out by the backs of their shirts. Tucker was always impressed at the strength Danny had developed over the last year, and the strength he could gain when he used his powers as a booster, even if it was obvious it was his powers speaking and not his natural muscle. _Maybe I should seriously use the weight room..._

"Now..." Danny said, to the meat and cut covered nerd and Latina as he still glowed intensely, almost menacing in his anger, "Still think that ghost fighting is easy?"

Neither of them answered as Sam helped Tucker pull Mikey out.

XX

**Half an Hour Later**

**Above Casper High**

"So, what now?" Danny asked Valerie. The two were still 'suited up' as it was, Danny in Phantom form and Valerie in her gear, though she had removed the helmet as they looked down on the mess. School was not cancelled, but everyone was being moved to the gymnasium so the damage could be tallied and they could make sure everyone was safe. Danny's parents had shown up and he gave them the Thermos, and the two had left to make sure the Lunch Lady was secured after ensuring there were no more spectral presences in the area other than him.

Mikey, Kwan, Paulina, and Nathan were all seriously hurt and a number of other students had more minor wounds. The four wannabe ghost hunters were sent to the hospital for what the nurses assumed was broken bones and some nasty cuts that might need stitches, while everyone else was being treated in the nurse's office if they were hurt. He, Sam, Tucker, and Valerie had managed to duck out and Jazz had come up too, having missed the whole battle due to talking with Lancer at the time about how Dash was starting to blow off her tutoring sessions.

"I don't know." Valerie answered with a shrug. "I got a feeling that I just lost a lot of popularity though, or what I had left."

"Why?" Tucker asked in confusion. "You just helped Danny Phantom save everyone from a rampaging meat monster in one of the most dangerous attacks on the school and saved a bunch of your classmates!"

"Yeah, and sounded like a hypocrite the whole time. We all did." Sam pointed out.

"But you were right." Jazz pointed out. "It's not hypocrisy to say that they didn't have the experience to fight ghosts."

"Maybe." Danny said as he rested a hand on the edge of the stone top of the school, a slight jab of pain coming from his still-healing bruises under the suit. "But Val's right. We did sound like hypocrites telling everyone to not get involved and then getting involved ourselves. And now four kids are hurt, and it's my responsibility."

"Danny, no." Valerie and Sam said together, much to their mutual surprise before they turned their attention back to him.

"Look, you warned them plenty of times from what you told me, and clearly." Sam said. "Hypocritical as it was, Jazz is right too. We had the experience to deal with this whole thing. If miss formerly flawless skin, two nerds, and a jock want to ignore that and get hurt, that's their fault."

"Yeah, but I gave them the idea!" Danny retorted. "I showed up at Ghost Club and showed them how ghost hunting gadgets worked and told them a lot of things about it!"

"To give them an introduction to the whole science of ghosts. It's not your fault that a lot of your knowledge was from ghost fighting." Valerie cut in. "Besides, as Sam said, they were warned repeatedly."

"I'm surprised you're all missing the politics of this." Tucker added as he walked over. "You see those Guys in White vans down there? They're going to be milking it for all its worth. And you can bet they're going to spin Ghost Club as Danny trying to get people hurt following his footsteps."

"And people who eat that stuff up won't give two looks at it, like my parents." Sam added angrily. "Oh, what're those necrophobic jerks doing here anyways?"

"What do you think?" another voice cut in as an ecto gun charged. Danny turned and saw the two Guy in White operatives he always had to fight aiming rifles at them, wearing some sort of jet pack suit.

"Are you two _serious?_" Danny asked as he put himself between them and everyone else. "Or you just so unused to not being able to shoot something that you can't help but point your guns at anything, even if it's a good guy, just for your own satisfaction?"

"Silence, ghost brat," the African American agent. "Operative O, clear the non-combatant humans."

Sam, Tucker, and Jazz took a step forward defensively and grabbed whatever they had on them that would be close enough to a weapon. "You're going to have to go through all of us," Jazz said as she pulled out her car keys, Tucker his PDA, and Sam a Fenton Fisher she had pulled from the mess.

The two GIW operatives stared at them when 'Operative O' began to speak. "Daniel Phantom, you're coming with us for a discussion."

"Oh yeah?" Danny asked, recalling their threat when the Reality Gauntlet had revealed his powers. "Questions, then experiments, lots and lots of really painful experiments?"

They looked at each other in confusion. "Uh..." Operative O uttered in confusion.

"I don't know, Oscar Mike Romero, but we'll deal with that later."

"Affirmative, Kilo Lima Foxtrot. For now, you come with us for questions on this incident."

"Kilo Lima?" Sam asked, "That's a pretty bad. Your mother loved you, huh?"

"I think those are code names." Jazz said tensely as the standoff was turning into a Mexican standoff.

"NATO military alphabet." Valerie interjected; "Oscar Mike Romero is O, M, and R, while Kilo Lima Ferris is K, L and F. Probably initials."

"Does that matter?" Oscar Mike asked. "We have questions about this incident, and you will answer them."

"Or what, you'll cite regulation at me?" Danny taunted.

"You can ask us together. Or are you afraid of a handful of meddling kids?" Sam smirked at them. "Besides, we both know that unless deaths occur, you cannot separate us for interrogation with the Federal Anti-Ecto Control Act."

"Oh really?"

"Save it, Operative O. She's right." Kilo noted the fact bitterly as he lowered his rifle. "Alright, we do this here. What happened?"

"Simple." Danny answered. "The Lunch Lady attacked, there was a fight trying to keep her from hurting anyone, I blasted down a few doors because she sealed them with meat and the kids needed to escape the fight. Oh, and some kids got hurt in the crossfire, the worst injuries being because four of them jumped into the fight. You can ask the police for my report on this when I give it to them."

The two operatives glanced at each other before activating their jet packs to 'step' out of earshot and converse.

"What do you think, Danny?" Sam asked. "Think this'll get ugly?"

"If it does... Valerie, I want you to take them and run." Danny answered quietly as they turned around and came back. "I'll take the heat if it turns into a fight."

The two GIW operatives looked at him, then Kilo spoke up. "So be it, ghost boy. But mark our words, when you take a _toe_ out of line, we'll be there."

"And so will our operating tables." Oscar added. With that, the two GIW operatives flew off as Danny growled in annoyance.

"Danny, are you alright?" Sam asked as she put a hand on his shoulder.

"No, I'm not. Kwan, Paulina, Nathan, and Mikey are in the hospital because of me, the school reeks of meat, and the Guys in White still want to shove scalpels into places on my body they shouldn't go."

"Danny, it's not your..." Sam started when she stopped and sighed. "But it is your responsibility, isn't it?"

"Yeah..." He looked in the distance and could see the Axion Lab building in the distance. "Speaking of responsibility... Valerie, could you tell me what Axion wanted out of this Ghost Club again?"

Valerie raised an eyebrow at him briefly, before nodding.

XXX

**The Next Day**

**After School; Ghost Club Meeting**

**Casper High**

"So. In conclusion, with the recent events, it is to be made clear." Lancer was starting at the members of the club sternly, among the group was Mikey with a brace around his wrist, Kwan with a cast around his arm and in crutches with a broken leg, and both Nathan and Paulina had large bandages wrapped in various places where they had been cut.

"This club is _not_ the Ghost _Hunters_ Club, it is simply Ghost Club. You are here to study the _science_ behind ghosts, not how to _fight_ them, and analyze some ghost stories for the truth in them compared to what is now known of ghostly capabilities. From now on, there will be no group organizing to try and hunt down ghosts, even if some members have hunted ghosts in the past." This drew attention to Valerie, though Danny also had some glances since he was standing to the side. Lancer continued unabated. "With this clear, I urge you to continue to have fun with your activities, but there will be no more stunts like what happened. Mister Fenton, I believe you had something you wanted to say?"

"I do." Danny said as he walked to the front and turned to them. "Look, I'm touched that some of you guys wanted to help me out yesterday, that some of you want to help me defend Amity Park. But you all saw yesterday what happens when inexperienced fighting happens. That's pretty much what was happening with me, Tucker, and Sam when I was still getting the hang of my powers; a lot of close shaves and we probably burned out all our luck surviving those encounters." He looked across the group and sighed. "I'll still be around, but I won't be bringing in any of my parent's gadgets to let you get an idea of how it feels to use them or offering any training..." Lyle, one of the band geeks in the club, raised his hand. "Uh, Lyle?"

"I'm not looking into hunting," Lyle said to set a point, "But wouldn't that be counterproductive? Wouldn't it be better to train those who wanted to fight so they could do it better?"

"You're right, in theory that's the better idea, but after yesterday I'm not going to risk it. Look, you're better off helping people get out of the way then jumping in. The less people there are around, the less damage gets done and fewer people get hurt." He glanced around for any more questions. "So, yeah. I'm not going to be helping you even try hunting. Obviously, if you guys _really_ want to try on your own, I can't stop you short of being Big Brother, but I'm hoping that after this you've learned that this isn't as easy as it looks and a whole lot more dangerous."

"Well said, Daniel." Lancer said. "Now then, Mister Marsh, I believe you have a club to run. You have your material prepared?"

"Yes."

"Good. Mister Fenton, Miss Gray, could you come with me?"

Danny and Valerie glanced at each other and followed Lancer to his office. The last day had mostly been spent giving the police a report, but Danny had flown to Axion Labs to talk to the director there about the Ghost Club and what had happened, and to get the actual details of what they wanted from the club, and found that they had no intentions of it turning into a ghost _hunting_ group, just one that studied the general stuff. The director offered to chip in on the club since it was mostly occurring as part of Axion's grant, but it seemed that it would not be needed with Ricky's current set of ideas. As they entered Lancer's office, they found Mister Faluca was waiting there for them.

"Look, Daniel," Lancer said as he sat behind his desk. "I want to apologize for setting this in motion. I had figured that giving you the option was better instead of giving you detention, particularly seeing how it was caused."

"Mister Lancer, it's alright. You were trying to be fair to everyone. I assumed people would take my warnings, but they didn't, and I should of anticipated that happening." He glanced at Valerie. "And... how're things going for you, now that everyone knows you're the person who was trying to waste me for so long?"

"Badly." Valerie answered. "Even Star is ditching me. Other than you and your friends, I'm pretty much isolated at Casper High. And beyond..." she sighed. "Nasty Burger fired me, saying they didn't want some creepy ghost hunter who hunted a hero in the mascot suit."

"Wow," Mister Faluca said before he could catch himself. "I thought that was basically punishment or for anyone desperate enough to take it." He glanced at the dirty looks arrayed against him and rubbed the back of his neck. "Sorry. Thinking out loud."

"Either way, what the hell?" Danny asked angrily. "It's not like there weren't enough reasons to want to fight me for so long, and if they can forgive me after blatantly robbing a bank and trashing the police responding to it..."

"... under mind control..." Lancer cut in, well aware of what had happened with Freakshow at this point.

"... then they can forgive you for assuming my heroics was either being bipolar or a charade." Danny continued unabated, the entire discussion bringing back what he had seen. Amity Park in ruins, as far as he knew everyone dead... _No, don't dwell on that._ Danny thought to himself to push the thoughts away, he did not need to be thinking his own evil potential then. _Or maybe I do..._ "Besides," he added as he recalled what he knew of the ten years that had been prevented, "the town needs _someone_ around who can stop me if I jump the slippery slope or get hit with some sort of mind control again, and I don't think anyone wants the we-don't-care-about-collateral Jerks in White doing it. And, if I do go nuts or something, there's someone in town who has _experience_ fighting me."

"Danny, you don't want that to be..." Valerie started, but Danny cut her off.

"Yes, I do. I have to be careful; the collateral damage my fights already cause are bad enough, and that's without trying to cause it. Now imagine me without giving a care, whether I go insane or get put under mind control." He could feel the sweat forming around his body. "If there isn't anyone around to stop me..."

"Shakespeare's _Macbeth_, Daniel, stop that line of thought there." Lancer cut in harshly, surprising him with the force behind his voice. "You're right to be worried, but this is not the time to be worrying about it. You've shown that you care, and the fact that you are willing to know someone is there to stop you if you do jump off the slope tells us that you are in control, but you are worrying too much about jumping off. Drop it."

He looked at his English teacher, mind oscillating between _he's right_ and _he doesn't understand_ as he processed the backbone Lancer had suddenly shown. On one hand, Danny would never forget the images of Amity Park in ruins or the explosion at the Nasty Burger only stopped by literal _dues ex machina_ courtesy of Clockwork. But, he also realized that Lancer was right. Constantly thinking about it and acting like it was an inevitability was the _wrong_ way to go about it...

_"But me, my future? I'm inevitable..."_

No one actually said it in the room, but Danny could hear it clear as day, see the blue skin and white flaming hair of his alternate self speaking with such certainty that he would follow the same path, all while he was threatening Jazz with Danny helpless to watch as he was reintegrating to the present, hidden from everyone below by the cloud cover. _No, don't think about that like he's telling the truth, he _wins_ if you think that..._

"Danny?" Valerie asked softly, shaking him back to the present. "Are you..."

"Yeah." Danny answered. "I'm fine. Just... thinking on what Lancer had said..."

"Should I step out?" Mister Faluca said, looking more and more like an elephant in the living room with each passing sentence.

"No, it's alright. We really should get back on topic." Lancer said.

"Yeah. What was the damage from the fight?" Danny asked curiously.

"Cafeteria doors blown down, main doors locks broken, a couple dented locker doors, lots of broken silverware and plates, and a couple smashed chairs." Lancer answered with a shake of his head. "It's going to be another tight year with the budget."

"It always is, though at least we get more money for reconstruction from the city council. The benefits of a large urban discretionary budget." Mister Faluca added.

"What other bits of damage control do we need to look at? The news was pretty neutral on the whole issue, except for a heated debate about the whole reason why they jumped in." Danny asked, recalling the scathing accusation that he was testing the waters on making an army out of Casper High students or some other insane conspiracy theory, with the truth of the matter being somewhat obscured by the whole debate.

"Not much, other than the GIW insisting that we ban you from the school for the usual roulette of 'ectoplasmic threat' speeches." Lancer answered with a shrug. "So, what do you two intend to do with your relations with the Ghost Club anyways?"

"I'm going to keep my distance," Danny answered, "Though... I'll admit, being close enough to head off anything dangerous might be useful. I think I'll keep away from it but keep my ear on top of their goings on, just in case."

"I'll probably stay in it, assuming they don't try to vote me out or something like that." Valerie answered. "Besides, without the Nasty Burger job anymore, I've got a lot more free time."

Lancer nodded slowly. "Very well then. Let's hope we all learned from this. You two are dismissed, and again, I'm sorry for starting this whole chain of events."

XX

As the two left, Lancer watched them go and looked to Mister Faluca as they left earshot. "Though, Fenton is right. We need to be ready if he loses control of himself."

"What are you suggesting?" Faluca queried as he gave him a narrow look.

"Nothing yet." Lancer said as he reached into his bag and pulled out the Fenton Thermos that he had found abandoned after the Lunch Lady's attack. "But I don't think young Daniel will miss this with how many he seems to have..."

Lancer put the Thermos into his desk drawer. After all, it never hurt to be prepared for a rainy day. Mister Faluca shrugged, catching what Lancer really meant. "Well, we should probably run a few more ghost drills..." Faluca said as he rubbed his chin. "Though, we should wait until this whole mess passes from the collective student memory."

"Agreed, we wait until things return to normal." He glanced out the window, "Or at least, normal for Casper High. We can discuss this with Principle Ishiyama tomorrow."

XXX

**The Next Day**

**Outside of Casper High**

"Back off, Baxter." Valerie snarled as she was forced into a corner in the alley across from the school by the jock and some of his friends. "I'm not in the mood."

"And Danny was in the mood when you started shooting at him, huh? I think you need to realize how it feels..." Dash pulled his fist back to strike.

"Hey, Baxter!" she shouted, surprised at what she was doing as she stepped out of the shadows of the alley. "Leave her alone."

_"Sam?!"_ the entire group chorused as they realized just who was stepping in with that declaration.

"Why are you stepping in?" Dash asked hotly, "She tried to hurt your boyfriend, repeatedly!"

"Because, Dash, she's not hunting him now, is he? Ever hear about second chances? The guy you hero worship is pretty big on those." Sam retorted as she folded her arms. "Besides, if you want to repeat the mistake you kept making with Danny, go ahead. Just remember that if you and your friends are not all bloody on the pavement at the end of it, it means she was a far bigger person that you'll ever be." This was just too rich for Sam, being able to call Dash out for his idiocy with full moral high ground. And by the look of constipation on his face, he was trying to process what she had just said.

"Uh, so what're you saying?" another jock asked. "That if she suits up with her gear she's making a bad move?"

"I don't think she even needs the gear." Sam pointed out, "She's a black belt, remember?"

"Only first degree; Danny exaggerated with the ninth degree part." Valerie chimed in as she flexed her hands to get the point across. The jocks looked at each other as they started connecting the dots. "Though, the point still stands."

"Oh come on, it's her against the rest of us." Dash pointed out. "Besides, we won't be doing too much. Just a few avenging punches..."

"Wow." Valerie said, "You really are thick about what Danny stands for, aren't you?"

"Why you..." Dash swung, but Valerie's head was gone so fast that Sam almost thought that Valerie was secretly half-ghost too. In reality, Valerie had just moved her head out of the way and Dash's fist hit the stone wall. Sam anticipated Dash suddenly landing on the floor in pain from a counterattack, but it never came as Valerie held her stance firmly. _Wow,_ Sam thought, _I never would have put Valerie down to having that much self control._

Dash began to howl in pain and ran away, holding his hand as he fled the area and the other jocks, looking at her like she was some sort of war demon, followed him in retreating as Valerie dropped her stance and Sam walked closer to help her pick up her books.

"Thanks, by the way." Valerie said.

"For what?" Sam asked as she passed a book to Valerie.

"Stepping in and getting their attention so they didn't try and mob me." She explained. "That, and not trying to bring Danny in all knight in ectoplasmic armor or directly threatening them with my abilities."

"Well," Sam answered, still surprised she stepped in like she did. "I had that as a backup, in case Dash didn't back down after that."

"Thanks again, Sam." Valerie said with a smile as Sam walked towards the school.

XXX

Valerie checked her backpack again, making sure everything was inside when she heard someone else stepping into the alley. She whirled around and entered a combat stance, anticipating one of Dash's friends finally having the stones to attack when she saw two men in white suits.

"Miss Gray?" one of them asked as Valerie finally recognized them as the Guys in White. Operative O (_O, Oscar, whatever_, she decided) was the one who had spoken up.

"Yes?" she asked, "Can I help you?"

"Yes, it is highly likely that you can." Operative K/Kilo answered. "We saw how they reacted to discovering you were a ghost hunter."

"What of it?" Valerie asked hotly as she lowered her stance and tightened the straps on her backpack.

"Well, it strikes us that you are sincere in your desire to hunt down ghosts and stop their intrusion into our reality." Oscar explained. "We also know that you are testing weapons for Axion Labs just for that job."

_Of course they do, you collaterally careless morons buy it from Axion..._ She did not say it out loud of course, and Kilo continued on. "Therefore, we want to extend to you the offer of joining the Guys in White organization, or at least begin a career path towards such. You can hunt down ghosts with the government itself, and get all the support you need. No more having to find menial jobs at places like the Nasty Burger. You could go to college and hunt ghosts without having to also juggle another job to pay for it all."

"So, basically, join you guys, go through GIW training, and then get paid for hunting ghosts?" Valerie had heard... dim things about their training, and these two agents had a very poor showing even if they had gotten a lot better from their first display in Amity Park almost a year ago.

"Within reason, yes. The specifics will vary depending on if you join us properly or as a freelancer agent, but the core of it is the same. Obviously, we understand you have school so if you want to only do preparation and reserve work, similar to what the Army recruiters do, we will accept that."

"So, what will it be, Miss Gray?" Oscar asked.

Valerie folded her arms. "I'll think on it, Operatives. It's a kind offer, but I need to get to class and sleep on it."

"Very well. We will see you in approximately thirty hours for your next answer, give or take." The two nodded to each other and walked away. Valerie watched them closely, wondering just what they were up to... and why did they want her in their ranks all of a sudden?

She could deal with that later. For now, she had school to survive. Alone now, essentially, with her sudden drop in the social food chain.

XXXX

XXXX

**End Chapter**

**Epilogue:**

"We should really do something." Danny said as he looked towards Valerie sitting alone in a corner of the cafeteria. The school had only issued out the finger food like chicken nuggets that day since they were still replacing all the silverware and getting the plastic sporks and knives, and most kids had brought something from home in anticipation anyways.

"You wanna move over?" Tucker asked.

"Yeah. I think so." Danny rose and walked over. Valerie glanced up at him and smiled faintly.

"Oh. Hey there."

"Hey yourself. Would you mind if we sat with you?" Danny asked.

"Not at all." Valerie answered and the trio sat down, starting to talk with her like a friend. Even Sam was starting to come around to her, much to the surprise of other students as those who were dead set against Valerie were now trying to understand why Danny was so willing to forgive when he clearly knew it was her who had been trying to hunt him down...

XXXX

XXXX

**Author's Notes:**

_So yeah. Valerie's secret is out in this one. I, personally, am not quite ready to say "she's a regular Team Phantom member", but that's mostly because while I can see her teaming up with them regularly post-PP, I can't quite see her being a full member that fast. A friend, a close ally? Sure. But an actual member? That, I think, will take some time. Speaking of Valerie, her comment on Danny exaggerating her martial arts status is my way of correcting the error in the fact that she is simply too young to have become a ninth degree black belt no matter how gifted she is as a combatant. She's still deadly in hand-to-hand, as seen in "Flirting with Disaster" when she took Technus on with whatever was on hand, but she's not a ninth degree black belt._

_As for the Guys in White; again, I just never got the 'name after a letter of the alphabet' thing since there's only 26 letters. Using the initial thing gives me a somewhat more laconic reference (IE, 'Oscar' instead of 'Operative O') and still keeps the spirit of it. I look at downsizing it to 'O' as something along the lines of casual reference between friends in the organization. IE, Danny calling Valerie 'Val' as they became more friendly towards each other._

_I know it was probably something to do with the 'moral guardians' and the fact that the Christmas episode was the next one in the lineup, but I am kind of disappointed we never really saw anything of Danny worrying about the whole TUE thing in the series. I don't mean he should have turned into a ball of angst, that's not him, but there were some situations I can think of after TUE where the comparison might start getting made or where Danny might have that annoying, niggling flashback. That, and Danny never really got a chance to talk with Sam and Tucker in detail about what happened where it was actually Danny._

_Finally, thank you to those who reviewed. Hope you enjoyed this one._


End file.
